AN UNUSUAL CLOISONNE ENAMEL RECTANGULAR PANEL
AN UNUSUAL CLOISONNE ENAMEL RECTANGULAR PANEL

QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details
AN UNUSUAL CLOISONNE ENAMEL RECTANGULAR PANEL
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
Depicting Zhong Kui, the Demon Queller, brandishing his sword as he stands atop a rock in a landscape of trees and flowers, with the Five Poisons arrayed around him; the toad beneath his left foot, the centipede suspending a beaded chime wrapped around the tip of the sword, the scorpion on the rock to one side and the snake hissing from rocks on the other side below the lizard slithering on the tree trunk
13 x 15½ in. (33 x 39.4 cm.), framed
Provenance
Spink, London.

Lot Essay

According to Stephen Little, Realm of the Immortals, Daoism in the Arts of China, Cleveland, 1988, pp. 34-35, it was common for artists to paint Zhongkui's image at the lunar New Year as the auspicious image helped clear one's household of demons and other malign influences for the coming year.

The Five Poisons, the toad, lizard, scorpion, centipede and snake, are said to form an elixir that neutralizes evil. Here Zhong Kui and the Five Poisons are brought together to defeat evil.

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